Dear colleagues,
We are already half-way through our Autumn Graduation ceremonies and it has been a busy and enjoyable week as our graduates – along with their families, friends and supporters, and our staff – come together to celebrate the successful conclusion of their studies and the award of their degrees.
It is a genuine pleasure to preside over these happy occasions, to welcome visitors from all over the globe, and to see so many smiling faces on what is a truly memorable chapter in our graduates’ lives.
I am also delighted that these ceremonies allow us to recognise the contributions of distinguished figures in fields such as science, engineering, technology, business and public service through the presentation of honorary doctorates.
This autumn we are honouring 12 outstanding individuals, including: The Lord (Simon) Stevens of Birmingham, former CEO of NHS England; The Lord (Nicholas) Stern of Brentford, IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government at the London School of Economics; Professor Dame Muffy Calder, Vice-Principal and Head of the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Glasgow and former Chief Scientific Adviser for Scotland; and, Professor Sir Mark Walport, ex-UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser and previous CEO of UK Research & Innovation.
The recipients are not only exceptional in their own fields but offer ideal examples for our graduates to aspire to and emulate.
We’re also presenting Alumni of the Year Awards to Carol Marsh, Head of Digital Systems at communications technology company Celestia UK – a truly inspiring engineer and someone who has helped to encourage other women to forge careers in engineering to address the gender imbalance in the professional field; and Adrian Gillespie, Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise and former Chief Commercial Officer at Strathclyde, in recognition of a career spanning more than 20 years in economic and business development.
Yesterday was National Engineering Day, a day that aims to make the UK’s engineers and engineering more visible and celebrate how they improve everyday lives and shape the world around us.
At Strathclyde we are proud, with the biggest Engineering faculty in Scotland, to offer our students world-class teaching, access to cutting-edge facilities, and carry out research that makes a real impact on the global challenges facing society.
Our achievements in Engineering have been consistently recognised through the Queen’s Anniversary Prize, the highest national honour conferred on the higher and further education sector – with three awards presented to us, for our teaching and research in electrical power engineering in 1996, for excellence in energy innovation in 2019, and for our work in the field of advanced manufacturing in 2021.
You can read more about the innovative work our researchers are undertaking – including helping rehabilitate stroke patients, using drones to deliver medical supplies, and improving lives through better prosthetics and orthotics – on our National Engineering Day webpages.
As we approach COP27, starting in Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt this weekend, it is an opportunity for us to reflect on our role and contribution as a University to addressing the climate crisis, following last year's summit in Glasgow. We set out our ambitions and commitments in our COP26 Legacy Statement last year across our Vision 2025 Strategic Goals, and are focused on continued progress across all areas.
However, in this time of crisis we also appreciate that we all need to go further and faster in addressing not only climate change but the wide range of complex challenges the world faces embodied in the UN Sustainable Development Goals. As a socially progressive University, we remain committed to working with all of our staff, students, communities and stakeholders, both locally and internationally, to address these issues and continue to play our role as global citizens.
Our sustainability credentials were on full display yesterday when we hosted a visit by The Right Honourable James Cleverly MP, Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs.
The Foreign Secretary visited Strathclyde to learn more about how our researchers are using UK Aid funding to devise innovative battery technologies to store power generated from renewable energy sources and how these can connect to mini-grids to help millions of people in developing countries to access reliable, affordable, clean electricity.
This work is truly reflective of our status as ‘a place of useful learning’ and our mission to make the world better educated, sustainable, prosperous, healthy, fair and secure.
Enjoy the rest of the week and have a good weekend when it comes.
Best wishes,
Jim